In a potential sign that China is willing to further open its doors to foreign investment, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has applied to invest up to $5 billion in Chinese stocks and bonds which would make it the biggest investor in China's capital markets.… Continue Reading

A Reed Smith team lead by John Wilkinson and Oliver s’Jacob, partners in our life sciences and investment funds teams respectively, has advised specialist investment manager Sixth Element Capital (6EC) and Cancer Research Technology (CRT) on the launch of a ground-breaking £50m investment fund, to bridge the funding gap in the U.K. between cancer drug … Continue Reading

Despite a number of sovereign wealth funds being in existence for in excess of 20 years, there is still a considerable misunderstanding of how they operate and go about their activities. The attached article (click here) by Dale Gabbert and Oliver s’Jacob (co-heads of our Sovereign Wealth Funds group) was published in The Lawyer on 15 … Continue Reading

In May 2011 the European Commission published the responses to a consultation paper (PDF) issued in February which asked the European Community to provide its views on the following: whether a new tax on the financial sector should be introduced; if so, what impact the tax would have; and how it should be designed and implemented? In its paper, … Continue Reading

Here is a link to an article published by Winston Penhall, on Pension Schemes and Alternative Investments, in Investment & Pensions Europe magazine earlier this month. Winston discusses how the key investment issues related to hedge funds and private equity funds differ from a legal perspective. He also considers the rationale for pension schemes obtaining a legal … Continue Reading

In the past, few players in the market paid attention to the treatment of redeeming shareholders. However, with funds imposing gates and suspensions over the last few years, investors’ ability to redeem has come to the forefront of their minds. As was made clear by the Privy Council in the Strategic Turnaround decision at the … Continue Reading

The controversial European Alternative Investment Management Directive (AIFMD), finally adopted by the European Parliament last November, was originally expected to be published in early 2011, so triggering a two year period in which Member States would be required to get their rule books in order to ensure consistent fund management regulation across the EU. Five … Continue Reading

Well, Spring has arrived in London, and it’s back to the office after a long and rather eventful bank holiday weekend. It started with the new Duchess of Cambridge wowing the world with her wedding dress and finished with the news that the U.S. had finally got their most wanted man. These events rather overshadowed the other big news of … Continue Reading